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Friday, October 31, 2008

Kile was a sweet boy until Danny was born and then he suddenly was in his terrible twos. We especially have a hard time with him when either company is over or we are out in public. I noticed that our local hospital has a class that teaches 1-2-3 Magic - but it wasn't until December. I checked out this book and the DVD with the same name from the library. Both Ben and I have found it to be very helpful. So helpful in fact that we plan to purchase a copy so that we can refer back to it and reread as needed.

1-2-3 Magic has three concepts; stop bad behavior, start good behavior, and strengthening the parent child relationship. The stop bad behavior is where the 1-2-3 comes in. You count to your child when they start to do something bad and they have to sit in a chair/go to their room at 3. The hardest part is that the parent is not suppose to talk or show emotion. I have trobule with this. Kile was a child that had to test the concept, but it has been two weeks since we started doing it - and it has been working great.

The second part - starting good behavior - doesn't work as well for a two year old. Most concepts in the book would work better on an older child. Ben has been using the timer concept (You have five minutes, but when the timer goes off, you must go to bed) and it has been working. Kile is a boy that likes things on his schedule and that works for him. I wish the book had more concepts on how to start good behavior in small children as I could use some help!

Overall though - this is an excellent book. I highly recommend it to parents who are looking for ways to effectively discipline their children.